I left work early yesterday so that I could visit the gym and still have time to beat the tube strike. I left the gym with an hour to spare and was greeted by this site. Tube staff turning people away from the barriers because of "Overcrowding" which I have to say did not seem too evident. When asked "Is it worth us standing here?" We were told "Probably not. Strike starts in 45 minutes dunnit?" Fucked off as I was, I walked a mile towards London Bridge carrying a heavy gym bag and a backpack with my laptop in it [I had to take my laptop home because I wouldn't be in work for two days, due to the strike]. I then got on two busses and found my way home, an hour and 20 minutes later than I would have normally. I'm not really complaining about the journey, the strike or Bob Crow's reasoning. The Tube goes on strike all the time and let's face it, Bob Crow needed the publicity with his No2EU: Yes To Democracy Party running for a European seat last week. I'm just pissed off by the fact that I wake up this morning to radio reporting that "Most Tube lines are running as normal?" The fuck is that? This isn't a strike! This is some bullshit. Fuck going into the office today though. Tomorrow too. That's £7.60 of Oyster Card travel Bob Crow won't be getting out of me.

On the plus-side though, I had the world's greatest lunch yesterday, that right there is a Jacket Potato with Vegetarian Chilli, Sour Cream and Cheese with a delicious Lemon Ice Tea. God damn that's some good shit. I got it from B.L.T on Great Eastern Street and it was fucking expensive [£4.60 without the drink. Rich people are probably laughing at my "Expensive" claim right now]. Also I got a serious amount of Cardio work done in the gym. 70 minutes uninterrupted. I'm getting stronger. Be scared.

Monday, 8 June 2009

So, the British National Party won two seats in the European Parliament yesterday. Interesting. By the same token, UKIP picked up 13 seats and 16.6% of the national vote. Something to consider. Democracy is democracy though and the fact of the matter is that 6.2% of roughly 40% of British people voted for the British National Party on Thursday and by that token, Nick Griffin is now an elected official representing the North West Region of England. Interesting. This fascinating article on the Channel 4 website using YouGov polling statistics to build up a rough idea of why people chose to vote BNP furthers my interest still. While I've been accused of choosing to believe that we don't live in as intolerant a society as some may have you believe, there can be little doubt that every one of those 6.2% knew when they ticked that box marked BNP, who they were voting for and why. Nick Robinson said last night that the BNP and UKIP votes would naturally be inflated due to the perceived [and justified] underdog status of the two, especially considering the [expected] backlash against mainstream politics [which we probably saw more in the poor turnout than anything else] due to the expenses scandal.

There has been much debate as to where the 943,598 BNP voters came from and what their agenda may be. "Mainstream politics" has been blamed. But the Conservatives reserved an almost identical vote share as they did in 2005, as did the Liberal Democrats. The issue of Europe immigration has been cited as a reason for the sudden switch, but the party standing on the ticket of European immigration is UKIP who received almost three times as many votes. There's a very clear indication this morning that where the BNP succeeded, votes were transferred from the Labour Party, our current party of government. Which moves somewhat beyond being "Interesting". YouGov say...

"...perhaps the most startling finding came when we tested anecdotal reports that many BNP voters were old Labour sympathisers who felt that the party no longer speaks up for them. The BNP is constantly cited as a "Far right party" which is a convenient way of saying "Racist" but strangely their actual political beliefs [they have a manifesto, who knew?] is a quite Leftist one, calling for Nationalisation of just about every industry within Britain. As many as 59 per cent of BNP voters think that Labour "used to care about the concerns of people like me but doesn’t nowadays".

While I could go on about why somebody in Leeds would choose to act out against the government in this fashion, I don't think it would be right to pick-on the insecurities and frustrations of the "Real" people in this country who have very much, gone unnoticed under this "Big business" government that somehow has the cheek to call itself "Labour". No doubt there will be a shift in local constituencies to drum home the old Labour beliefs and a shallow attempt at painting The Conservatives as the capitalist, uncaring, Thatcherites of the 70s and 80s will more than likely, go ignored by a country who has not only had enough of this government, but let's be honest had enough of it the day after Tony Blair won the last election.

As for the BNP, I'm hopeful that the press they're currently receiving will react negatively for them, with the stay-at-home voters of this election taking to the ballot box next time around. I also hope that anybody who chose to vote BNP this time [without patronising them and belittling their right to an opinion, same as me] arrive at the next general election with a clearer idea of what's affecting them and people like them in this country. While it would be foolish to deny that Britain has an immigration problem [I live in London and have eyes], the problem is probably not that "they're taking all our jobs" or "they're all on crank and they eat babies" but that we currently do not have the resources in place to facilitate such a large influx of people who want to work, want to pay taxes and want to be a part of British society. Beyond that, post-2001 it can not be denied that the anti-Islamic sentiment among the nation at large has grown at a very rapid rate, a lack of understanding, a lack of communication and a lack of humanity is causing fear, suspicion and hatred to grow, perhaps manifesting itself in some pretty heinous acts. I don't know how to bridge the gap between Islam and Britain, there are Islamic MPs, there are Islamic MEPs, there is now a Muslim in the Cabinet for the first time. While commentators and hate mongers constantly site the "Muslim Council of Great Britain" and their failure to condemn acts of violence and hatred carried out in the name if Islam across the world, it shouldn't be that an unelected group can be viewed as the voice of such a large portion of British people [hint, hint, Gordon?] when what we're talking about is a religious group embodying people from so many countries, regions and continents who often share a god and not much more.

Yesterday's European Election results shouldn't surprise many. The BNP have been making inroads for the last few years and unless the political media start challenging the major parties on issues that British people clearly feel strongly about then they will continue to grow. All that being said, it's quite possible that the 900,000+ BNP voters saw this election for what it was, a complete joke [Gordon Brown scoffed on The Andrew Marr Show this Sunday about Britain's foolishness when he himself will do as he pleases in Europe to "Protect British Jobs" regardless of how we voted in the European Elections] and decided to cast the ultimate protest vote against a government that is well past its sell-by-date. It's not a coincidence that The BNP Picked up seats in traditional Labour heartlands.

While I attempt to consider the potential ramifications of a post-devolution Scotland being run from London by a government with little-to-no presence in the country, I'll leave you with this, Britain is; like the rest of Europe, standing at a crossroad, where we turn at the next general election will shape the next 50 years. I don't know what we need to do, but it's about time people started working out what politics can do for them, for their families, for their futures, because if we continue to leave it to the rest to make the decisions, we could well see extremist parties, religious parties and destructive parties gain more and more seats in local councils, Parliament and European Parliament. For now, this article on The Guardian website talks about Nick Griffin's relative treatment from the BBC this morning.

By now you've all heard 'Death of Autotune' and whether or not you believe Jay-Z can kill the craze by his lonesome, you can't deny the record's bang-bang-bang-ness. Me, Jack, Pixel, Tego and Ben sat in Farside on Stockwell Road in January and talked about what we wanted to do this year. We kept coming back to the same point "We want to do hard shit" [pause]. I've mentioned on this site that I fucks with Tinchy Stryder, no doubt, I like him and I like his pop songs, I'm less into N-Dubz and DJ Ironik but you have to respect the way they communicate with their fans and produce hit-after-hit. The knock-on affect of those guys being as successful as they are has been that all the wannabes in the UK [NAMES GO HERE] sweetened themselves up for a Cadbury's Product launch. When "Grime" first reached the ears of the mainstream, it was in a [largely] negative context [beautiful], people were scared of these black boys scattered around London painting the City in a post millennium way nobody could ever have articulated. 'Boy In Da Corner' is and was, the best representation of teenage life in the capital, a triumph yet to be repeated. With that album came Dizzee clones [NAMES GO HERE], they came, they thinned the genre's credibility and made it hard for Dizzee's following albums to have the affect they probably deserved [I fucks with all of his albums no question]. Dizzee fights on and continues to achieve hit-after-hit with a backdrop of credibility and a body of work that nobody in the UK can ever touch [maybe The Streets' first album but that last one could have undone all that hardwork, we'll see what the next album offers].

When Kanye West dropped in '04 he changed hip-hop across the world, "The Kanye factor" probably wasn't totally evident until his '07 album 'Graduation' dropped and everybody started sampling from the same pool, wearing the same clothes and copying just about everything unique in his flow [the reason '808s and Heartbreak' was such a departure? I'd hazard a guess that maybe so]. With Kanye's success [inevitably] came a slight move to the centre in terms of aggression. Rappers started wearing Polos and Sweater Vests, they started singing on hooks and all of a sudden College was the Projects. At this point I should make it clear that I love Kanye West, 'Heartless' is my ringtone and I think he's one of the most important performers in the world today. The "Softening" of rap was not Kanye's fault, hip-hop needed him when it got him, originality is hard to come by in rap, being liberal and educated though; is not a trend. How did it become one? Because everybody wanted a bite of Kanye's apple. Three, four and five million sold is nothing to scoff at, after-all, hip-hop is run by "Entrepreneurs" and "CEOs" whose creative thought process generally works thusly "Which producer is doing the best impression of a Timbaland beat right now? How much does he charge? How much does his Mexican, non-union equivalent charge? Let's move!". The move away from confrontational rap music [three years before Kanye was the biggest rapper in the world he was producing the best beef record of all time for Jay-Z] and towards a more liberal, sensitive form of rap was not necessarily a bad one. Easier for the mainstream to consume and TV shows to licence, who knows how rap would have survived the industry recession without it? But inevitably the people grow wary. Believe it or not, 50 Cent was the only rapper in the mainstream even making an attempt to be aggressive and was wholly vilified for it during the Kanye West Soundscan war.

When Jay calls for "The mixtape Weezy" on 'DoA' he's calling for that rapper we were all amazed by once upon a time. Not the 'Let It Rock', 'Lollipop' rapper that tops the charts. Maybe I'm one of the few who actually wants to hear some well-produced, well-conceived, traditionalist, aggressive hip-hop again, but I somehow doubt it. In 2009, when Eminem's your mother's ringtone and N-Dubz are performing your Gran's birthday party, how are we letting Emo get away with being the most feared musical genre? Maybe I'm shallow, maybe I'm ignorant, but I want to get banned from the motherfucking radio like Giggs, I want to get banned from the clubs like Three 6 Mafia, I want to get banned from TV like Shabba. I don't want to force it, but for fuck sake, we're in a recession, the industry's dead and all we've got is a few autotune anthems about how "Shawty got weave" and such nonsense. I'm glad Jay's killing autotune and I'm glad he's doing it hardcore. Not for New York's sake, not for London's sake, but for disillusioned, frustrated people everywhere. We are the hip-hop generation and we're acting like we live in a Bratz DVD box-set. Fuck that.

Thursday, 4 June 2009

Democracy people. It's a sexy behemoth. A horny puddle. A warm massage. You may or may not remember 13 months ago, I exercised my right to vote in the pouring rain. Well today it was blazing sunshine, sunglasses and shorts as I placed a large cross in a column that didn't read Labour or BNP [new acronym; Blacks Never Parlay?]. How humiliated will Gordon Brown-Face be in the morning? I await with baited breath. Genuinely I do, the idea of another term in government for that party actually suffocates me. I can't take it. Democracy is a pregnant dwarf and sometimes you just want to kick it in the stomach. You've been pregnant for 12 years and you gave birth to this? You stupid dwarf prick! Hopefully a third or fourth place finish in today's European election will bring forward a general election. Then Vince Cable can tell me how to vote. You can do it Vince!

Monday, 1 June 2009

I still play my PSP [kinda] but there's no doubting it needed an upgrade. I hope this is backward compatible and I hope it costs a reasonable price [unlike the £200 the original retailed at]. Details...

So the sun was out, I was restless after the F.A Cup Final [which was 50% darkness due to somebody forgetting how to design a proper football stadium] and I wanted to get some exercise. What better to do than drive 3 hours out of London to the greatest beach on these here British shores? Nothing. I went out to a secret location in Norfolk I discovered with my family some 5 or 6 years back and it was exactly as amazing as I remembered it.

The sun wasn't fucking around and the water was crisssssssp.Ben was feeling it.

After stopping for a while, enjoying a cloudy lemonade and a tasty sammich I hit the sea for a spot of swimming. God damn. Shit was cold but oh so refreshing. While in the sea, I noticed a huge black dog wash past me on a wave. It made a noise something between moaning and gasping for air. I waited for the wave to subside before reaching around to find the dog. I couldn't. Slightly concerned I decided that what I'd actually seen was a man, his shoulder, his shorts, something, stride past me. But how could I? There was practically nobody on the beach with us. The swimmer's head never emerged. I'd all but forgotten about it by the time I exited the sea, found a seat on the beach and watched the waves. At which point I noticed another dog swimming, it disappeared "Wow that dog's dead!" I declared. Moments later it's head popped up 20 foot deeper facing the other direction "That's a motherfucking Seal!" I shouted. Desperate for photographic evidence to show you swine, I raced to the front of the tide to take a picture, the Seal reappeared twice and the second time popped up with a friend. Which was fairly awesome. My stupid camera phone didn't do a very good job of picking them out and I can't even find the shot that was taken at the time of the Seal affair. Who says you can't holiday in-land? Idiots that's who!

This was a fairly awesome sand car somebody made on the beach next to ours. No story, just thought it looked great.

Now it is hot and musty in London Town and I need lunch. I'm going back to my secret beach this month for a few days. I have to.

So before I start I should say this, we had Pixel's super-flashy, expensive camera on Friday night, I took some shots, then Ben took some shots, then Tiago took some shots. Then of course Pixel left the last of the true ravers and while he has the camera I now realise that I have his camera charger. If he wants it back he knows what he has to do. These two [yeah I only have two] photos are taken on my phone and thus don't do much justice to my awesome photography skills.

So Friday was Marvin's first gig of 2009. It was Pixel's first gig in over 18 months. Which is crazy. Rather than ease themselves into it though, they decided to do a whole set of previously unheard numbers, not-a-one song in the set had ever been performed before. One of which [the finale and most awesome song by most accounts] has never been heard outside of the studio barring a couple of car journeys with man-dem. Shaking off a touch of rust Marvin and Pixel performed these songs in order...

All of which [apart from 'Falling Down'] will feature on Marvin and Pixel's new mixtape coming early July to Devil In The Distance. What's 'Falling Down' for I hear you ask? *Taps nose* After Marvin and Pixel's set, me and Ben Official hit the decks to pump out some classic hits, you may have heard the likes of 'Gamble On Me' by Cory Gunz and T-Pain, 'On The Rock' by Mavado and Jay-Z, 'Ghost Ride It' by Mister Fab, 'Tell Me When To Go' by E40 and Keak Da Sneak and a whole lot more. We then transitioned into Akira's set, which was the best I've seen him perform, without a doubt. His band was on some shit, brass section? Are you crazy! Genius. Morty was on point, so was Joey, shit was crazy. As the performance went on, the gangingest crew you ever did meet started to down ciders and unknown spirits [pictured above] and the night got fairly crunk. Video footage of what followed will be available soon. Suffice to say that Crusty Sleeve invented the Willy and used it to give Luke all the AIDS. At which point Luke proclaims to have borrowed the Willy and used it to transfer the AIDS on to Tiago, a motion that was then rejected. The video will of course decide.

Devil In The Distance

My name is Marvin [The Martian]. I am a rapper, my debut album 'Devil In The Distance' came out Summer 2008 through NoCarbon/Universal. This is my blog. I run it with help from Tego and my producer Jack Nimble. If you want to get at me, hit me on my email whylout(at)hotmail.com.